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Law360 (April 17, 2020, 8:47 PM EDT) -- Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP has decided to push back the start date of its summer associate program to mid- or late June and conduct the beginning of the program virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New York-based firm will also extend offers to all 2L summer associates to join the firm as associates in 2021, and for 1Ls to return next summer.
Cravath declined to comment on the record.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created widespread economic upheaval and forced businesses across the country to switch to remote work, many firms have been making adjustments to their summer associate programs, while others have decided to cancel them outright.
Over the past week, Hogan Lovells, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Clifford Chance LLP, among others, have all announced that they plan to delay the start of their programs, with most putting the new start dates in mid-June.
Other firms have chosen to nix the program for the year, including Greenberg Traurig LLP and Arent Fox LLP, which both announced last week that they would invite all associates who had been accepted into the program to return next year.
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, meanwhile, has told its summer associates that it isn't sure exactly how it will move forward, but it is evaluating alternatives.
A handful of other firms — including Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Cooley LLP, Covington & Burling LLP and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP — have said they plan to move forward as scheduled with their programs, although many of the new hires may end up working remotely.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
